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(borrowed from the resident Jacobite bishop at Jerusalem) to secure his own election; eventually he had to spend altogether £T500. He was enthroned on August 15, 1906 (O.S.). As an exception, he has never been Mafrian. There are discontented Jacobites under him who say that His Holiness stains the Patriarchal throne by various faults, of which excessive avarice is the chief. Many hope for and expect his deposition.^[1]

Immediately under the Patriarch, as his assistant, counsellor, and vicar-general, comes the Mafrian (mafryânâ).^[2] Since the collapse of the Jacobite Church in the East (practically since the quarrels and schisms of the 14th century) the Mafrian has resided near the Patriarch, having no real see of his own, but acting as a vicar-general and auxiliary bishop. Before that he was almost a second Patriarch for Eastern Jacobites, a kind of opposition Katholikos.^[3] He could ordain bishops, consecrate the chrism, and so on. Now he has lost these rights. On the other hand, since he ceased to exercise jurisdiction in the East, he unites to his dignity that of their see of Jerusalem. The Jacobite Metropolitan of Jerusalem is the Mafrian. But it appears that the institution of the Mafrian is rather in abeyance in the latest period. A Mafrian is no longer regularly appointed. They have now eight metropolitans, of Jerusalem (the Mafrian), Mosul, Mâr Mattai (the Abbot of that monastery), Mardīn, Urfah (Edessa), Ḫarputh, and two "general" (temelâyâ) metropolitans without fixed sees. There are three simple bishops, in monasteries in Ṭur 'Abdīn. The Mafrian has a delegate bishop to represent him at Jerusalem. Diyārbakr itself counts normally as the Patriarch's

2 Mafryana means "fructifier" (from frâ, to make fruitful, beget). Maruthâ (the first Mafrian) made Tagrīth a fruitful soil of Jacobitism (p. 329). The name, given first to him as a compliment, became a regular title (Labourt: Le Christianisme, etc. p. 241). Cf. Apost. Const, viii. x. 12: (Greek characters). Michael I calls the Mafrian by a Greek name, "epītrōnīsâ" ((Greek characters)), to make fruitful; or (Greek characters)? (ed. Chabot, iii. 451). In Arabic he is often called the Patriarch's "wakīl" (vicar).

1. I should perhaps add that I have these details from first-hand sources in Syria. I regret that they are more curious than edifying.
2. 2
3. The Mafrian was sometimes called Katholikos and Wakīl (vicar) by the Jacobites. Barhebræus gives a list of Mafrians and their lives (Chronicon Eccl. ii.).